Experimental Study On The Character Of Dielectric Elastomer

Dielectric elastomer can yield extremely large strain and elastic energy density in DC electric field, which makes it to be used as basic material of actuators for subminiature machine, even as ideal material of artificial muscle for subminiature robot in future.By means of experiment, the relationship between the (area)deformation and some factors, such as voltage, the pre-expanding, the ratio between the area covered with compliant electrodes and without it around, and the thickness of electrodes, are discussed in this thesis, at first about every single factor and then about the comprehensive effect of all of them with help of the quadratic orthogonal regression method. Meanwhile, the destroying principle of dielectric elastomer was analysed in this thesis. And the breakdown voltage by unit thickness was proposed as the criterion of anti-breakdown strength for dielectric elastomer. It was revealed that pre-strain can not only accelerate response speed, increase deformation ratio, reduce working voltage, but also enhance the anti-breakdown strength to a great extent. It revealed further the character of DE and established foundation for the next design of elements through these experiments and analyses.